Black bear attacks couple and dogs outside Mammoth Lakes home

A black bear that attacked a couple and their dogs outside an Old Mammoth home was later tracked down and euthanized after California wildlife officers and Mammoth Lakes police determined it posed a threat to public safety. The confrontation began around 6 a.m. Monday, June 8, when the woman heard barking, stepped outside and saw the bear fighting one of the dogs. When she tried to break up the fight, the bear turned on her.

A man rushed in to help and was also injured. The woman struck the bear with a water bottle while he grabbed a hatchet from inside the house and used the blunt end to hit the animal multiple times, critically injuring it and stopping the attack. The couple then drove themselves to Mammoth Hospital. Both are expected to recover, and their two dogs suffered minor injuries and are also expected to recover.

Wildlife officers later located the bear, described as an approximately 17-month-old animal weighing about 70 pounds, and euthanized it. Mammoth Lakes police said incidents like this are extremely rare in the community, which sits in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite National Park. Authorities said there was no ongoing threat to public safety in the area.

The attack lands in a broader debate over human-bear conflict in California, where officials estimate about 60,000 black bears live. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says its Black Bear Program coordinates scientific research, population monitoring and management, and it released a final Black Bear Conservation and Management Plan on April 14, 2025. State wildlife officials have pointed to two recent milestones that sharpen concern over bear encounters: California’s first fatal black bear attack in recorded history in 2023 and a separate attack on a jogger in Tuolumne County in August 2024.

For mountain communities in the Eastern Sierra, the lesson is less about a single violent encounter than the conditions that can make bears bolder around homes. Officials urge residents to secure garbage, avoid feeding bears, keep pet food and bird feeders indoors, keep dogs leashed and report aggressive bear behavior immediately, a prevention strategy aimed at reducing the attractants that pull wildlife into neighborhoods.